TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th July, 2020) Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau apologized for not recusing himself from a controversial decision to award a government contract to a charity tied to his family hours after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued his apology.
Trudeau and Morneau, have incurred backlash after multiple investigative pieces revealed close ties between their families and the WE Charity, which was awarded a $670-million sole-source contract to administer a government-sponsored student volunteer program.
"I did not recuse myself from the discussions [about the WE Charity contract] and, given that my daughter works for the organization in an unrelated branch, I now realized I should have in order to avoid any perception of conflict," Morneau said in a statement on Monday. "I apologize for not doing so, and moving forward, I will recuse myself from any future discussions related to WE."
The finance minister echoed Trudeau's earlier comments, saying that the decision to award the contract was recommended by the public service.
Morneau was thrust into the controversy after an investigation by independent media outlet Canadaland revealed that Morneau's adopted daughter Grace Acan is an employee at the charity, while another daughter, Clare, has had prior speaking engagements.
The office of the minister has said that Acan's employment at the charity has "absolutely no link with any work the charity has done with the Government of Canada." The office added that Clare Morneau was not compensated for her speaking engagements.
Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner said in a statement to Sputnik on Friday that an investigation of Morneau has not been initiated, despite a call by at least one lawmaker to do so.
Morneau has previously been the subject of two conflict of interest investigations by the Ethics Commissioner. In 2017, Morneau was fined by the ethics commissioner's office for failing to disclose private, non-commercial real estate in France, according to reports. And in 2018, the ethics watchdog cleared the finance minister of conflict of interest after introducing a pension bill, while his family still owned shares of the company that was to administrate the new legislation.
